Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Conan V Leno

I don't get what all the fuss is about. I rarely watch any of the Late Shows so I mostly don't care, but if I understand this right a lot of people in Conan's niche audience are upset that Jay Leno wants to keep working. Leno has been number one in that time slot for a long time, and this fact seems to anger people who don't think he's funny. If you don't think he's funny, don't watch him. Lots of people do like to watch him, and that fact should not be a grudge held against him. Then you have the least talented of all the late night hosts, Jimmy Kimmel doing a whole hour of his show dressed up as and doing a bad Leno impersonation. I can't stand David Letterman, but never have I demanded he be taken off the air. If David wants to work for a living, I have no objection. I won't be watching, but go ahead and do your top ten lists. What is the greater crime, exploiting your authority over interns by dropping your pants, or wanting to work?

On the whole controversy about NBC and the Conan contract, the conspiracy that they set him up to fail, frankly I don't care. I am no fan of NBC, and I fully admit that the people running that ship are either corrupted or incompetent. What I would like to see at this point is Conan go to a new network and compete directly against both Letterman and Leno head to head to head. My bet is that Leno continues to be #1. The biggest reason is that Letterman and Conan compete for the same audience, which is probably a big reason he failed as Jay's replacement going head to head against Letterman.

In any event, if a man wants to work, he is entitled to the right to work. If Brett Favre still wants to play football and can still take his team to the playoffs, let him play. I don't agree with people who advocate mandatory retirements for people they don't like...unless they work for a public broadcaster and are subsidized by tax dollars. In that instance I will speak up against employment.

4 comments:

  1. Late night wars? More like Millionaires behaving badly, what an unbelievable waste of time....

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  2. I'm a Jay Leno fan. Conan is funny, but he is just too wierd for middle america. He just does not fit the mold of the Tonight Show. It should never have been offered to him. It was a mistake from the word 'go'.

    Jay is the kind of guy that almost every man can relate to. Is humor is straight up, not edgy like Conan. That's why Jay has been so successful over 17 years.

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  3. An interesting experiment: The first night Jay Leno returns to the tonight show, Letterman should have Conan on as his guest.

    I wonder what the ratings would look like?

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  4. I don't watch any of the late night guys... they are all sexist like you. :} :}

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